DURHAM -   The founder and visionary behind the David H. Murdock Research Institute (DHMRI) at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) in Kannapolis, announced a gift of $50 million. The gift will provide operational support for DHMRI over the next eight years.  D

Speakers at the announcement included Victor J. Dzau, MD, President and CEO, Duke University Health System; Thomas W. Ross, President, University of North Carolina; Steven Lommel, PhD, Interim President, David H. Murdock Research Institute and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research, NC State University; and Robert M. Califf, MD, Vice Chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research, Duke University Medical Center. 

“In our world chronic diseases are rampant, and there is a great concern for getting healthcare products to the right people at the right time,” commented Califf. “No one has solved the problems. I can’t think of better people to do it with $50 million in operating capital.”

Dole Foods President David Murdock established the non-profit DHMRI to support the corporate and academic partners at the NCRC. The Institute offers a broad range of advanced and –omic technologies including a 950Mhz Bruker NMR, one of the largest in the world. 

“Thank you Mr. Murdock, for your passion for human health, your philanthropy and capacity and vision to create the NCRC and the DHMRI as your perpetual tool to dramatically improve the lives of people in North Carolina and the world through improved health,” said Lommel. “The mission of the David H. Murdock Research Institute (DHMRI) is to be the go-to provider of innovative research technologies to academic, government and industry scientists through advancements in human health, nutrition, and agriculture.  The DHMRI contributes to advancing human health, nutrition and agricultural research by supporting our NCRC campus partners, and by developing our own research that leverages the distinctive capabilities of our laboratories and the talents of our scientists.  The announcement of this gift of operational support to the Institute guarantees that we will successfully fulfill our mission.” 

“We celebrate a momentous occasion today – sealing the potential that all of us have perceived for some time, and bringing the future more crisply into focus,” said Dzau. “David Murdock is a global citizen, with companies and homes across world.  Today, he singles out North Carolina as the place where collaborative research has a friend like him with the vision and resources he commands.  It is our job now to navigate the future with a new excitement and sense of urgency.  Duke and UNC may be arch rivals on the basketball court, but we are allies in research and medicine. Together, we have a faculty twice as innovative as either institution boasts alone.”